I started writing this on June 14th, 33 years after the original drummer for Echo and the Bunnymen, Pete de Freitas, tragically died in a motorcycle accident. I worshipped that band for years and they are still my second favorite band of all-time, just barely behind Elbow. I bring this up because I want to tell you about the trip my partner Jean-Robert and I took to Liverpool!
This was Day Five of our trip to England. After the flurry of activity from Thursday-Saturday with the Mercury Machine rehearsal, our tour of Manchester and of course, that amazing #madeinmanchesterfestival at Dukinfield, we really needed a mellow day on Sunday to decompress, so all we did that day was a short walk over to Oldham Street to do some shopping, some fantastic pancakes at Moose Coffee for brunch and the best fish and chips in Manchester at the Village Chippy for dinner.
Refreshed on Monday we had an early breakfast and headed over to Manchester Piccadilly Station to catch the train to Liverpool Lime Street Station. The trip was a pretty short one, just over an hour. Monday was the most rain we encountered during our Manchester stay but that did not dampen our spirits at all. Monday in Liverpool was what we planned long before we left for England and a little rain would not derail those plans.
Our primary destination was going to be Mathew Street, home to “The Cavern Quarter”. This trip was heavily music influenced and a trip to Liverpool meant going to The Cavern Club, well known for being the venue The Beatles played numerous times early in their career. I won’t try to tell you the history of the club, the venue’s website does the story much more justice than I ever could. I knew that the venue we would be going to was not the original but that did not matter. Visiting Mathew Street and the surrounding area in Liverpool is what mattered so we charted our journey which first led us past Walker Art Gallery.
Liverpool was beautiful! The rain was not very intense and made for a nice walk. Mathew Street was not far away at all, just under one mile and this gave us a chance to check out the architecture of the city. I loved the classic structures I saw just like in Manchester.
The Cavern Quarter felt like a miniature town within Liverpool. Mathew Street shrunk in size and we could see a large banner hanging across the street saying “Mathew Street – Birthplace of The Beatles”. As you may expect even on a Monday the street was packed with tourists like ourselves. I saw one tour group there but I am glad we did things on our own. There were plenty of Beatles-related clubs and shops on either side of the street as we walked.
Loved the artwork I saw all over, very music oriented for the obvious reason. When we were standing in front of Rubber Soul Jean-Robert noticed a statue and walked over. The Cilla Black Statue stands here so I got a couple of pics of him with it. The statue is a tribute to a local music star who also worked as a cloak girl at the Cavern Club and was unveiled in 2017, two years after the artist’s death..
The original location of the Cavern Club stood right by where we were at this point. It was a pretty remarkable feeling for this guy from Phoenix, AZ to be standing where so much music history was made. I am admittedly a casual fan of The Beatles but I will always respect what they did for music and rock and roll. I would have a hard time believing any fan of rock music who claims to not at least like a couple of songs from the band. I love many of them.
Now Liverpool is known for more than just The Beatles. Some bands I like that come to mind include Icicle Works, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Elvis Costello (moved there in 1971), the Mighty Wah!, Flock of Seagulls, Frankie Goes to Hollywood (man I was a huge fan) and of course, the aforementioned Echo and the Bunnymen. Yes there are a lot of people out there who will say it is blasphemy that I feel Echo is the greatest band to come out of Liverpool. Tough. You won’t convince me otherwise. In my opinion Ocean Rain is the greatest album OF EVER and their third album Porcupine is also in my Top 20. I have seen them three times and will tack on two more August of this year eight days apart in Atlanta and Phoenix. So there. We passed a club by the name of Eric’s Liverpool which was important for multiple reasons. One previous location of the Cavern Club was 7-15 Mathew Street. In March 1976 the Cavern Club changed its name to the Revolution Club and hosted a music appreciation club called Erics. Well, a month later Revolution closed and reopened in October as Eric’s. That is where we were at this point so pictures were essential. I had carefully planned my wardrobe that day so the hoodie came off to reveal my 2016 Echo concert shirt from the Marquee Theater show in Tempe. Yeah I’m a dork and proud of it. đŸ™‚ Zoom in on the first picture of this post and check out that circular plaque above my head as well as all the artwork toward the top of the venue, it is pretty sweet.
Almost directly across the street was the new Cavern Club. Mathew Street was so reminiscent of streets like Oldham, multiple venues on the same street within walking distance, great atmosphere! Admission was cheap, just five pounds. Man were we in for a treat!
Once you enter you go down a staircase that spirals multiple times until you reach the bottom and once you get there you have entered an impressive replica of that original club that hosted bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Black Sabbath, Queen and The Who. That is fricken crazy! I knew I would take pictures eventually but there was already someone playing so we grabbed a table and drinks and hung out for the next hour or so. The artist playing was Tim Shaw and man, he was great! Standing up there with an acoustic guitar he took the crowd through several Beatles covers as well as songs from Elton John and other artists. It was just after 12pm and the place was packed, loved the vibe. The crowd ate it up and Jean-Robert and I kept looking at each other like, “are we seriously sitting here right now?” Fun way to start the tour. Once Tim was done we got up to explore more.
We walked down a hallway and lo and behold, this version of the Cavern Club has a second venue! The Caven Live Lounge is a separate venue that showcases Beatles tribute shows, tributes to many other rock artists plus many other established artists. When we were walking around this area I freaked the f out because there was a sound desk with a picture of Elbow on the side. You can’t stop the greatest band in the world!
Well, we had watched some live music, toured the whole place and I had purchased the souvenirs I needed so time to check out what else we could find in Liverpool. I knew a record store was in order at some point but other than that we just explored. Oh yeah. Had to go to River Mersey so we headed west, at least in a roundabout way. We passed by Liverpool Town Hall on the way then found the river. Let’s be honest, you can’t miss it. We saw the Titanic Memorial there and took a few pictures. I loved the fact there was a gentle rain the whole time.
The rain had picked up a little and coffee sounded good. Back in Manchester we saw a couple of places called Costa Coffee and we happened to see one as we were walking so we figured perfect time to try it. I was actually jonesing for tea by then so ordered that instead. I think it is pretty rad that every place in England where I ordered tea I would get a whole miniature pot of it, enough for two cups worth. I know I am probably just being ignorant here but I don’t care. Drinks were good and gave us some time to rest for a bit while we mapped out the record stores in the area. We chose a place called Dig Vinyl, description online looked good.
It was a cool place! Interesting location too, it was on the second floor of a large retail shop that had clothes on both floors and I swear I recall a barber shop on the second floor next to the record store. What was unique is everything kind of blended together. Lot of cool selections on vinyl but I was not itching to deal with more albums for the flight home so left empty-handed. I would definitely recommend the place though.
We did a little more exploring, the street Dig Vinyl was on was loaded with shops, restaurants and lots of people. After a spell we got hungry and of all places in Liverpool we decided on Italian at this little corner restaurant called Bella Italia. We really enjoyed it! Both of us enjoyed our drinks, I forget what kind of cocktail Jean-Robert had and I had a really good mocktail. Food was excellent and the server was outstanding. Good experience!
We were close to Liverpool Lime Street by this time and we were running down so this was a good time to head back to Manchester for our last night in town before heading to London for three nights on Tuesday. Another successful day, another day of crossing off music bucket list items. Loved this trip!
The Musings of Frank Gallardo 
One thought on “2022 May 30 – Liverpool”